Shoe-counter



J. JONES.

SHOE COUNTER.

APPLICATION HLED MAR. 10. 1916.

1,351, 172. Patented Aug. 31, 1920.

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SI-IUE-OOUNTER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 31, 1920.

Application filed March 10, 1916. Serial No. 83,382.

To all whom it may concern:

lie it known that l, Josnrir JOE-TESS, a'citinon of the United Eritates and a resident of the city of Cincinnati, in the county oi Hamll u Ohio, have invented cer- .1 and State or '1 new and useful Improvements in Shoe (punters, of which the tollo ing is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification.

The present invention relates to the manufacture of counters or heel stirl'eners tor boots and shoes and it has special utility in the production of counters made of leather although the invention is well adapted to coiuiters made of material other than leather.

The usual practice in forming leather counters to-day consists in shaping up a piece of leather out to the proper pattern and inserting it in some preferred manner or lasting it into the shoe as desired. In order to make a leather counter of one piece it requires a large piece of leather to supply the proper cuts. The high cost of leather is such that leather counters cut of one piece have become a big item of cost in the shoe.

Moreover, in shoe counters, the most strain comes on the counter at the rear portion where it is bent around the heel portion of the last and the counters are apt to give way and break down at the back of the heel.

It is an object therefore, of my inven tion to provide a counter which may be formed from small pieces of counter material, so as to allow scraps and other outtings to be used, and to so join together these scraps into counters that they are not only as serviceable as a leather counter cut out of one piece, but so that they will be reinforced and strengthened.

To this end the present invention contemplates a counter for shoes formed from a plurality of scrap pieces of suitable counter material, these scrap pieces having their adjacent side edges beveled and secured together in overlapped relation by stitches extending vertically of the counter and pass ing through the overlapped margins of the said pieces. In the illustrated. preferred embodiment of the invention the overlapping edges of the several pieces are so formed as to extend substantially vertically of the counter and preferably counter-forming pieces are secured together in their overlapped relation with their side edges in parallelism.

(lther objects and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawing and the invention will then be defined in the appended claim.

' urthermorc the vertically arranged rows of perforations formed by stitching the parts of the counter together atlord greater flexibility of the counter in a widthwise direction without impairing the stiffness of the counter vertically.

in the drawing,

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the counter.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same before it is bent into shape.

Fig. 8 is a longitudinal section of the parts shown in Fig. 2, taken on the line 3, 8, of Fig. 2.

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a modification of the counter.

The counter is formed of two or more pieces of leather 1 and 2. This enable me to use up small scraps of leather left from other cuttings and thereby gives me a considerable economy in leather in my finished product.

The pieces are beveled at 1 and 2 at the places where they are to be joined together.

The two bevels run down to a line edge so that the places when overlapped present no more thickness at the overlap than at any other portion. After the beveling is completed, the various parts are set together and temporarily cemented or glued together in the overlappnngposition shown.

The overlapping parts are then fastened to each other with one or more, preferably with three lines of stitches 4-, 4, 4. These stitches hold the joined parts tightly together and at the same time give a reinforcement to the counter at this point, so that this portion of the counter is stronger than it would be i1 cut out of a single piece. By so shaping the pieces 1, 2 that their side edges extend substantially vertically of the counter the joint portion offers a stronger construction and better resistance to the strain placed on the counter after it is placed in use and also when the lower marginal portion of the counter is worked over on to the heel seat portion of the shoe. During the manufacture of the shoe the liability of the seam opening up is greatly reduced and this marginal' port on may be worked over with greater facility and to better advantage.

Instead of using two pieces for the counter,

three or more pieces may be employed as V are on either side of the back of the heel, but

as in the construction illustrated in Fig. 1 the lines of stitches 'ive reinforcement for the counter at the heel portion.

I do not wish to be llmited to any precise form of OOUIltGI'5 or to a counter which must be formed into shape before lasting into the shoe ormust be applied in any particular way to the shoe, nor do I wish to be limited in the claim that follows because of a failure on my part to fully realize the usefulness of 'iny invention at this time.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to se'cureby Letters Patent, is

A heel stiffener adapted to interline the rear portion of a shoe and having wings ar ranged to terminate adjacent tothe heel breast line of the shoe, the body of the stiffener being adapted to embrace the ball of the heel and terminating substantially at the junction of the vamp and top of theshoe, said stii'lener having a vertical skived and lapped joint at'its rear end comprising a pluralitv of rows of stitches arranged vertically of the stiffener to render the stiffener flexible widthwise without impairing its stiffness vertically.

JOSEPH JONES. i 

